Victim Researcher Profile

BIO

Post-graduate school, I have worked as a researcher in various capacities, including university, private, and non-profit settings. My work has focused mostly policing and corrections topic areas and has included government- and foundation-funded research projects as well as technical assistance projects relying on contracts with local partners. I am proficient at managing large research projects throughout the life cycle, including the stages of proposal writing, literature review, project development and methodological design, conceptualization and operationalization of outcome measures, data collection and statistical analysis, report writing for practitioner and researcher audiences, and dissemination to these audiences via peer-reviewed journals and technical reports. I have worked on a variety of projects including quantitative and qualitative research designs, scientific review of peer-reviewed articles, as well as efforts focused on dissemination and implementation. In my role as a Research Associate at the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), I supervised and managed day-to-day operations of experimental and quasi-experimental research projects, provided support to future proposal development, and maintained independence over several projects, including randomized controlled trials, quasi-experimental studies, and national-level surveys. My years at PERF gave me a more nuanced understanding of the research-to-practice gap issues, as we worked on many projects that were implemented in a law enforcement setting. I gained in-depth knowledge from the practitioner viewpoint that further contextualized my perspective, particularly in relation to previous work I had conducted in the university and private settings. I have also worked on dissemination planning for public health research during my work with the Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Foundation, where I used survey data from COPD patients to inform research dissemination needs and develop guides for researchers to better translate their study findings. I learned a plethora of tactics for strategic dissemination and implementation of research, as I also came to recognize that the research-to-practice gap is not a unique problem. This deepened my passion for pursuing my Ph. D., in part to enhance my potential in designing complex projects to approach this issue. I am specifically hopeful in the use of interdisciplinary teams to maximize resources and increase innovation regarding problem-solving of criminological issues. For example, research on marketing and persuasion tactics could be potentially useful to influence buy-in between researcher and practitioner partnerships, or perhaps psychology or persuasion research might point to how we can improve relationships with the police. Researchers within opposing or sometimes adjacent fields are often disconnected from each other, yet they likely have a high degree of intersections that could provide insight to a variety of c

VICTIMIZATION FOCUS

Child Abuse and Sexual Abuse, Domestic and Family Violence, Drug-Related Victimization, Gun Violence, Hate and Bias Crimes, Homicide Survivors/Co-victims, Physical Assault (other than domestic violence or elder abuse), Robbery, Sexual Abuse or Violence (other than campus sexual assault), Terrorism and Mass Violence, Vicarious Trauma, Workplace Violence

SPECIAL POPULATIONS

Victims with disabilities, Formerly incarcerated victims, Rural victims, Urban high crime neighborhood victims, General mental health issues

RESEARCH EXPERTISE

Action research, Community-based participatory research, Data collection, Descriptive studies, Ethnography, Needs assessment, Program evaluation, Qualitative studies, Quantitative studies, Quasi-experimental studies, Randomized controlled trial, Training and/or technical assistance

VICTIM RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

Action research, Community-based participatory research, Data collection, Descriptive studies, Qualitative studies, Quantitative studies, Quasi-experimental studies, Randomized controlled trial, Training and/or technical assistance